Age of Fire

Age of Fire

Cover from Dragon Champion
Dragon Champion
Dragon Avenger
Dragon Outcast
Dragon Strike
Dragon Rule
Dragon Fate[1]
Author E. E. Knight
Cover artist Paul Youll
Country  United States
Language English
Genre Fantasy, Adventure
Publisher Roc Books
Published 2005 – present
Media type Paperback
Preceded by 'Vampire Earth'

Age of Fire is a series of fantasy/adventure novels written by E. E. Knight, who is also known for writing the Vampire Earth series of novels.

Plot

The series follows the adventures of three dragon siblings. All having hatched from a clutch of five eggs carefully protected by the female dragon Irelia and her mate, bronze AuRel, the young dragons quickly establish themselves into distinct roles. Upon hatching, the males of the clutch are instinctively driven to fight each other to the death, which leads to the death of a Red hatchling, while the Copper suffers a crippled leg and must live as an outcast, leaving grey Auron to dwell with his two sisters under the protection of their parents. All four hatchlings survive their first seasons in the cavern, until an attack on their home cave results in the deaths of their mother and the female hatchling Jizara. Auron and Wistala escape into the Upper World, while the crippled Copper eventually makes his way deeper below ground. In the fantasy setting of the novels, dragon population has been dwindling as relations among the many races worsen. Humans especially are becoming the dominant species, but there are still powerful factions of dwarves, elves and other sentient species.

The first three books are written from a different sibling's point of view and occur simultaneously. They are stand-alone novels that are accessible without having read the other two.

Dragon Champion (Book 1)

Dragon Champion follows AuRon (Auron), the youngest male and clutchwinner. After being separated from Wistala, he is captured and sold to humans buying dragon hatchlings. He escapes and sets forth to seek the dragon NooMoahk because of a rumour that the ancient black knows the secret of dragonkind's supposed fatal weakness. Along the way he encounters many friends and future allies, the Dawn Roarer wolf pack, the tradesdwarf Djer, Naf the mercenary and the girl-child Hieba. AuRon studies under NooMoahk for a time and then comes to rule a small kingdom of the local blighters after the latter's death. However, the blighter ruler he had installed is killed by rivals who wish to lead all blighters to war with the humans. AuRon comes to learn of the Wyrmmaster who believes in human supremacy and wishes to wipe out the other races. The blighter war was instigated by him to destroy the other races. The Wyrmmaster is so named because he uses dragons to fight his wars; it was to him AuRon would have been sold to as a hatchling. AuRon volunteers and infiltrates to serve the Wyrmmaster and finds the "fatal" weakness of dragons: the fact that they imprint upon the first creature they see upon hatching and can then be tamed. With the help of the female dragons AuRon leads a successful uprising against the Wyrmmaster. AuRon mates with Natasatch and hopes to raise his children so that the males do not kill each other upon hatching, ending the book.

Dragon Avenger (Book 2)

Dragon Avenger follows Wistala, the sole surviving female. After being separated from Auron, she tracks down their gravely-injured father and spends some weeks nursing him back to health. However, Wistala and AuRel are found by the dragon hunter Drakossozh, and after her father is killed she is forced to leap into a gorge to escape. She is rescued, unconscious and near death, by a kindhearted elf named Rainfall who becomes an adoptive father to the orphan. During her stay with Rainfall, Wistala becomes involved in a conspiracy by the local thane Hammar to claim Mossbell, Rainfall's ancestral home. She later travels with a circus as a fortune teller, briefly roaming the land after uncasing her wings in search of dragons who can help her avenge her family's deaths. After an unsuccessful meeting with a small group of ambivalent dragons in the north, Wistala returns to the circus and wins favor with a dwarf named Gobold Fangbreaker, the ruler of the Wheel of Fire and the same dwarf responsible for the murder of her parents. Wistala manipulates his downfall from a position of trust, instigating a war between the dwarves and the human barbarians of the north and sabotaging the dwarves, leading to the downfall of the stronghold. Wistala slays Gobold and later encounters the Dragonblade, who agrees to end the bloodshed between their families. The book ends with Wistala preparing to leave in search of AuRon, who she finds is still alive.

Dragon Avenger spans the least amount of time of the first three books, following Wistala's first 14 years or so.

Dragon Outcast (Book 3)

Dragon Outcast follows the copper as he explores the lower world. Meeting with blood-sucking bats and dwarves, he makes his way to a community of dragons in the Lavadome, where he is adopted into the imperial family by the current ruler, the Tyr, and named RuGaard. RuGaard deals with politics and hominids, and searches for his place in a world of treachery and war. During his stay in the Lavadome, he becomes the owner of the human thrall Rayg, the lost great-grandson of Wistala's adopted elf father. He is later forced to mate with the sickly dragonelle Halaflora by the Tyr's mate. Not long after the Tyr dies and his brother-in-law SiDrakkon becomes Tyr. Rayg succeeds in crafting a brace for the wing that Drakossozh crippled in RuGaard's infancy, enabling the Copper to fly. Emissaries of the Wyrmmaster arrive and attack the Copper's home of Anaea, shortly after SiDrakkon dies under mysterious circumstances and his nephew SiMelovant becomes Tyr and arranges peace with the invaders. After the accidental death of Halaflora, RuGaard leads a successful assault against invading dragonriders and kills the Dragonblade, Drakossozh as well as SiMelovant. With the victory, RuGaard is named Tyr (king) of the Lavadome dragons, with his drakehood love Nilrasha as his mate.

Nearly all of Dragon Outcast takes place in the lower world.

Dragon Strike (Book 4)

Dragon Strike is the fourth book, but the sequel to the first three concurrent books. Despite victory over the Demen, RuGaard's Tyrship is threatened when a plague from blighted kern sweeps through Lavadome, killing hatchlings and the eldest dragons. He considers alliance with either Hypatia or Ghioz. Wistala sets off to find AuRon, and takes up with the Blighters in his old cave, both made more clever and more fearful by the magical gem Sunshard she finds there. The caves are attacked by Ghiozi forces; she defeats two dragons, defectors from the Lavadome, but breaks a wing and falls down a deep well during a fight with DharSii, an attractive warrior dragon she met in Book 2. Deep below ground, Wistala is captured by Demen refugees under Pastinix; despite poor treatment, when she is rescued by Firemaidens she helps Pastinix escape and promises to speak on their behalf with the Tyr of the Lavadome. Meanwhile, AuRon hears of Wistala from treasure hunters, and leaves the Isle of Ice to find her and gold for his hatchlings. He meets her friends, then DharSii, both of whom recommend hiring himself to the Red Queen of Ghioz. This many-masked, clever, and powerful woman gives him an amulet and sends him to negotiate an alliance with the Lavadome dragons. While searching for an entrance, he sees Naf's forces being firebombed by Ghiozi roc riders. Landing to help put out the flames, he is disturbed by stories of his employer's cruelty.

DharSii, AuRon, and Wistala all arrive in time for the same meeting in the Lavadome. DharSii warns of a massive force of Ironrider mercenaries and warriors of Ghioz, AuRon is taken over by the magical amulet and threatens the Lavadome before attacking his brother Tyr RuGaard, and Wistala—now a member of the Firemaidens—pins him and breaks the amulet from his neck. RuGaard, having received confirmation from his bat spies that the kern was deliberately poisoned by the Ghioz, asks Wistala to negotiate an alliance with Hypatia and declares war on Ghioz.

The siblings again separate. AuRon helps Nef defeat a group of Ironriders, then leads them against Ghioz. RuGaard recaptures Pastinix, and with his help, leads the Lavadome's Aerial Guard in a sneak attack on Ghioz through the tunnels. Together, they humble the city, though Nef dies, and when AuRon burns the Red Queen a mysterious blue light, invisible to all but dragon eyes, leaves her body and flies away. He discovers many other embryonic Red Queen bodies growing in magical tree roots deep under the tower. Meanwhile, Wistala was unable to rally Hypatia, but with a small force of firemaidens held the northern passes against Iron Riders for long months before rocs and dwarves forced her badly outnumbered forces into ineffective raids. Faced with a trickle of riders from the north and a more substantial force from the south, Hypatia surrenders. Nilrasha defies RuGaard's orders, and leads the firemaidens to rally Hypatia, leaving the Lavadome nearly undefended. Together, they rout the Ironriders and retake the city, though Nilrasha is almost fatally injured by collapsing building and forced to bite her own wing off. Over the next months, dragons and human survivors form a strong alliance and look for a better future.

Dragon Rule (Book 5)

Perspective: AuRon, Wistala and the Copper (RuGaard)

Dragon Rule is the fifth book[2] and was released on the 1st December 2009. Wistala, as sister to the Copper who is now Emperor of the Upper and Lower Worlds, is appointed proxy Queen by crippled Nilrasha, where she advances her ideas of political equality of hominids and dragons. Which puts her at odds with both her brothers, for the Copper has no use for the humans he now dominates, and AuRon, the rare scaleless grey, would isolate himself and his family from both the world of men and the world of dragons. The Copper sends AuRon to bring his old friend Naf's territory Dairuss into the Great Alliance, which he does successfully and becomes its protector. Imfamnia and NiVom, defectors and protectors of neighboring Ghioz, try to get him to join a conspiracy of dragon supremacists and Ibidio's traditionalists who want to see control returned to the Imperial bloodline. Though an assassination attempt, accusation of murder, and attack by Wheel of Fire dwarves all fail, it erodes the Copper's position sufficiently for a coup. The siblings, all tired by court intrigues, give up without a fight (though Nilrasha kills Ibidio when she comes to gloat). They go peacefully into exile on the Isle of Ice, only to be again attacked by a group led by Imfamnia, and flee to the isolated Sadda-Vale where Wistala secretly mates with DharSii.

Dragon Fate (Book 6)

Perspective: AuRon, Wistala and RuGaard

Dragon Fate starts out with RuGaard, Wistala and AuRon all taking shelter away from the Lavadome (as they were exiled in the last book). Wistala goes with DharSii to hunt a troll while AuRon has returned to visit his mate. While Wistala and DharSii are hunting, they learn that NiVom and Imfamnia have tried to take power from the twins and another clan war has broken out.

World

Species

Most species in Age of Fire are technically sentient and can speak at least one language, either specific to their species (cat, dragon) or general for their type (beast, avian). However, the focus of the series is on the dragons and their interactions with the different hominid species.

Places

The Egg Cave
A cave inhabited by AuRel and Irelia and their clutch. It is shared with bats, slugs, and rats. The cave has lichen growing on bat droppings, and streams and pools of water from the upper world.

In Dragon Champion

The Inland Ocean
An ocean spanning to the west of the mountains.
The Isle of Ice
A collection of islands in the north of the inland ocean. These islands are often covered with fog and clouds. They are inhabited by dragons and blighters. Also the site where AuRon fights the wizard of the Isle of Ice.

In Dragon Avenger

Mossbell
The ancestral home of Rainfall and focus of events throughout the book.
The Troll's Cave
The cave of a troll that constantly causes trouble for Rainfall and anyone who passes over the bridge. Later Wistala deems it to be the perfect spot for a dragonelle to live in and have a clutch.
The Wheel of Fire
A dwarven stronghold that creates pricey weapons and spends a great deal of time hunting down dragons. The leader of the hall is the same dwarf who betrayed Wistala's parents. Also taking residency there is the Dragonblade and his family.
Sadda-Vale and Vesshall
An extremely secluded, steep valley known for its high winds and large number of trolls. Vesshall is an ancient collection of carved structures and abode of the white dragon Scabia (the only female dragon portrayed in the books who is not green) and her immediate family. Dhar-Sii is also known to frequent the area as part of an exchange deal with the Lavadome.

In Dragon Outcast

Characters

Main characters

Siblings' family

By heritage

Italicized names married into the family Bold names are male †–Known to be dead ‡–Status unknown ?–Name unknown

By mating

Recurring characters

Other important characters

In Dragon Champion

In Dragon Avenger

In Dragon Outcast

In Dragon Strike

Naming conventions

Naming styles vary by species, and may also vary by situation. Generally, certain species have certain ways in which they name their own, listed below:

Dragons: Typically, male dragons have names beginning with an elemental symbol for the family name, Au for 'Gold', Fe for 'Iron', No for 'Nobellium', and so forth. Before their wings emerge, emphasis on a dragon's name is placed on the, familial, first syllable. Once a male dragon's wings emerge, the emphasis of his name shifts to the second syllable. For this reason, adult males' names are written with the second consonant capitalized, to represent adulthood. For example, when Auron's wings emerge, his name becomes AuRon after that point. Female dragons do not follow this convention, though they may shorten their names for familiarity, such as Wistala's preference that her elf father a human family call her "Tala."

Elves: Most elves have an earthy name reflecting their close ties to nature, and involve some kind of natural object or natural occurrence in their given name – three elves through the books are named as Hazeleye, Rainfall and Halfmoon.

Griffaran: Given their slight difficulty with Drakkine, the griffaran naming conventions vary slightly. Many of their names are a reflection of the sounds they make, such as one of the chief griffaran bodyguards, Aiy-Yip.

Humans: There seem to be no strict naming conventions for humans, though there are regional differences. Men of the Ghioz have different names from men of the Ironriders' Sweep, just as one would expect a difference in names between Europe or Asia.

Wolves: Wolves are called by different names based on familiarity. When spoken by another member of their pack, the first part of their second name is combined with the first part of their first name. For instance, Bright-Sight Fey-Bark is referred to as Feybright within her pack.

Glossary of terms

Since this series contains characters who speak a variety of languages, the terms are grouped by language.

Drakine

Dwarvish

Elvish

Feline

Hypatian

Dragon notes

Colors of scales

Names

References

  1. Knight, E. E. (2008-10-19). "Sunday morning notes". Bohemian Word Werks. Retrieved 2008-12-17.
  2. Knight, E. E. (2008-05-22). "Re: Dragon Strike". Bohemian Word Werks. Retrieved 2008-12-15.

External links

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